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NITED STATES PATENT Grates.

RILEY PORTER \VI LSON, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGXOR ()b )5 l'lllALF 'lOFRANKLIN J. \VALL, Oh NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF REFINING iRON WITH AIR.

SPECIFICATION forming part ofL etters Patent No. 384,813, dated June 19,1888.

Application filed Xovembrr 21, 1883. Renewed May 28, 1856. Serial No.203,566. (No plfl'l urns.)

T aZZ whom it may concern:

' Be itknown that I, RILEY PORTER WIT.-

SON, of Cleveland, in the county of (uyahoga and State of Ohio, acitizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful11nprovcment in the Process of Refining Iron with Air,which is carriedout substantially as here,

inat'ter set forth.

ihe object of my invention is to avoid the [0 loss of metal fromoxidation during the finishing stage of the process to more tfully'purify the crude metahhind thus enablman air-blast to be used for them'anui'acture ot' the finer grades o'fine'tal from pig ii-on.

To this end and to such others as theinvention may relate the sameconsists in the peculiar process, the details of which are herein afterset forth, and which consist, essentially, in providing a reducingsurface-atmosphere which can be regulated at will bysnpplying the gasesin the chamber over the molten charge with an excess of combustiblehydrocarbon, so as to reduce the oxidized metal as it is burned by theblastduring the finishing stages and thus prevent loss, and allowing thepurifying process to he carried to a point of perfection beyond thatheretofore attained.

In carrying out my process I prefer to use a converter orFurnace-chamber provided with a blast which is capable of being soadjusted as to furnish an exceedingly moderate draft when desired. Theconverter should be provided with a means for charging and dischargi ng,and should be provided with suitable acid or basic lining. Although manyof the furnaces now in use in the manufacture of steel are eapableofbeing employed in carrying out my process, I find from experience thatfurnaces constructed 'in accordance with the de seriptions contained inPatents Nos. 284,992 and 298,534 are particularly well adapted to suchuse. l

l l l d the iron.

The furnace used should be provided with a wide and shallow bed for themolten metal, (which is treated in charges) and the surface 5 of themetal should be covered with asnitable ll'ux or slag. A basic flux isadded when phosphorus and sulphur are to be removed from An excess ofcombustible hydro, carbon is maintained in the gases within the chamberabove themolten charge in order tov reduce the oxides,which wouldotherwise he carried off by the blast,- to metal again and thus preventtheir loss. This excess of carbon may be supplied from any one or moreof several sources, and nmy be either in the l'ornl of hydrocarbon vaporor gases.

The air-blast through the charge should be so regulated as' to burn outthe't'oreign sub' stances which it is designed to remove with as 6little agitation to the molten metal as possible, and in the finishing,stage of the process it should be reduced toa minimum in order p toallow the flux to collectupon the top,where it will absorb theimpuritie.

Having thus dcscribedmy inventionand set forth ilsmerits,what I claim tobe new,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The process herein described for treating impure iron for themanufacture of wrought- 0 iron and steel, the same consisting insubjecting the impure ironwhile in'a molten state to theaction of" ablast of air, in order to oxidize and carry 0d the impurities, andsimultaneously subjecting the iron to the action ofa re- 7dueingatmosphere of hydrocarbon gas or por held above thesurfaceot themolten metal, substantially as specified.

v RILEY PORTER WILSON.

Witnesses: L. A. STRATTON, ODELL WILSON.

